We can understand why Jesus’ relatives thought he was out
of his mind if we look at their situation from the human point of view (Mark
3:20-21). Jesus
had left behind his family carpentry business to become an itinerant preacher.
There was no other son in the family to continue the business. Who was now
going to support Jesus’ mother Mary? If we allowed our minds to wander on this
Saturday morning and think wicked thoughts we might wonder if some of those
relatives were now in some way providing for Mary and that was their main
problem. Jesus certainly had no stable income, he was relying now on the
generosity of others and Luke 8:1-3 gives us the names of some women who helped
Jesus financially.

Another reason why Jesus’ relatives might have thought
Jesus was out of his mind was that he was on a collision course with the Jewish
authorities. Not long before this Jesus cured a man on the Sabbath which caused
offense (Mark 3:1-6), before that he and his disciples picked heads of grain on
the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28). Earlier again when challenged about why his
disciples did not fast while the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees
did fast he evaded the issue by saying that when he would no longer be with them
they would fast, and he gave some cryptic defense by talking about new wine going
into fresh skins (Mark 2:18-22). Before that he dined with sinners (Mark
2:15-17) and the really embarrassing thing is that it was in the house of a
tax-collector (Mark 2:13-17). “How low Jesus had stooped” his relatives may
have been thinking! As if that wasn’t enough he even put his hand on a leper
(Mark 1:40-45). Was Jesus out of his mind? His relatives had plenty of reasons
from the human perspective to believe so.

And that brings us to Jesus’ disciples. Oh dear!! This
is really embarrassing, from a snobby human point of view. A number of them
were fishermen. They probably couldn’t read or write. One of them, Levi
(Matthew in Matthew’s Gospel) was a tax-collector, in other words, a thief. We
all know about those tax-collectors. They only gave a fraction of the taxes to
Rome that they collected every year. And one of the disciples was a Zealot,
Simon. What did Simon expect that he and his party could do, provoke the anger
of Rome against Israel? Jesus had proved himself as a rabbi because now he was
allowed to preach in the synagogues, but why then did he associate this rabble
with himself? We can certainly understand why Jesus’ relatives thought he was
mad.

But far from being mad,
Jesus was, as the first reading (Heb 9:11-14 Year I) tells us,
the high priest of the
New Testament. Far from opposing Jewish worship, Jesus came to fulfill Jewish
worship and liturgy. The high priest of the old covenant went into the Holy of
Holies once every year on Yom Kippur and sprinkled blood to offer atonement for
sins. Jesus entered the Holy of Holies in heaven offering his own blood and
this sacrifice was effective for all time. The high priest of the old covenant
offered an animal without blemish, he could not offer himself because he was a
sinner. But when Jesus as high priest of the new covenant entered the Holy of
Holies in heaven he did so as both priest and victim, he was “unblemished” and
could offer himself. In the old covenant the animal offered in sacrifice was
transformed by fire during the sacrifice. When Jesus offered himself in
sacrifice, because he did not offer something external to himself but his whole
self, he was transformed, and now reigns in heaven and is the means of our
salvation.

It would have been consoling if Jesus’ relatives had
understood Jesus but their lack of understanding did not take from the
effectiveness of Jesus as high priest of the new covenant. When we decided to
join the rabble of Jesus’ disciples there may have been some who thought we were
mad. It would be encouraging if they understood but their lack of understanding
does not prevent us from answering Jesus’ call or ministering to others in his
name. We can imagine that Jesus’ relatives in time came to understand and we
can pray that those who do not understand our call will one day understand.